


What We Need

by Pastellorama



Category: Original Work
Genre: Fantasy, M/M, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Sci-Fi, sea imps
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-28
Updated: 2017-09-28
Packaged: 2019-01-06 08:04:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12207162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pastellorama/pseuds/Pastellorama
Summary: After accidentally stumbling into rediscovering a species of aquatic humanoids, Miles J. Elliot struggles to understand the race he's labeled as "Sea Imps".Alternatively, his first discovery and now romantic partner (simply known as "Cadence") is considerably different from the rest of his species.Cadence struggles to understand how time has changed his race, and how the world has drastically altered during the one hundred years he spent buried beneath Miles' current city.This is for Writing Prompt Wednesday: How do your characters handle a misunderstanding?





	What We Need

**Author's Note:**

> Sea Imps are a race of people I've spent a lot of time developing. To truly understand Cadence as a character, you must first know a little about his species:
> 
> \- Like waterbears, they can dehydrate and enter a state where they do not age/do not truly live until they are re-hydrated. The typically do this by burying themselves when injured and having someone re-hydrate them once they are healed.
> 
> \- Sea Imps have several stages of appearance, one being calm and almost human-like despite their odd colorings, tails, and fins. When agitated, their teeth will become sharp and their eyes will dilate like cat or snake eyes. When truly upset, their appearances can grow considerably more frightening. Sea Imps also have the ability to take on a fully human appearance, which they typically do when their species is threatened and they need to hide. 
> 
> \- There is more but it is irrelevant to this particular short story.
> 
> **How this all applies to Cadence:**
> 
> \- Cadence accidentally floated into a jellyfish field while sleeping one day, and wound up being severely injured. He buried himself to recover, and expected rain to come and hydrate him. He misjudged how far he buried himself, and was unable to be re-hydrated. It wasn't until one hundred years later, after a city had been literally built on top of him, that a leaking pipe managed to re-hydrate him. He subsequently terrorized the city while looking for food.
> 
> \- Cadence remains stuck in an agitated state after spending a hundred years dehydrated while in his agitated state. When sleeping, Miles has occasionally seen him relax just enough to have normal teeth.
> 
> \- There was a giant culling of their race shortly before Cadence was born, and the number of Sea Imps was greatly reduced. His species went into hiding, and it was only Cadence's unintentional hunger-driven mad-dash through a city and destruction of several food stands that brought their species back into the eye of humans. Thankfully, he was rescued by a marine biologist who stepped in and claimed responsibility for him.

Miles J. Elliot gasped softly.

The couch had another hole in it—there were so many patches on it by now, it looked like a unique design rather than constant repair. The table was slanting, one of its legs had been kicked out from under it and looked to be hiding half under the torn-up couch. All the books were off the shelves, thank god they didn’t look any worse for the wear. The flowers were on the floor, their vases emptied of water that seemed to have vanished for the ground was dry where the flowers lay. The floor was wet where he stood, however, and quite spongy. This section of the carpet appeared to have a green tint to it—he could only wonder what green meant… maybe, mucus?

“Millie! Yer home! Wait… why are ya crying?”

Miles couldn’t stop the tears. For weeks now he’d been silently putting up with the messes, the destruction, the nonstop noise and chaos his home had become. But, enough was enough! He couldn’t handle it anymore. No, he couldn’t _afford_ it anymore. It was too much money and too much time and he was just too tired.

As always, Cadence was quick to approach him. That’s what Cadence was. Fast. He lived to be fast, to move fast and talk fast and act fast and think fast. But, it was too fast—he couldn’t slow down enough to see how harmful his behavior could be to others. It was all about getting what he wanted when he wanted it—which was, always, _as fast as possible_.

“Millie? Millie,” Cadence repeated softly, reaching out his unusual blue hands to touch Miles.

“Enough!” Miles snapped, slapping Cadence’s hands away.

Cadence recoiled, and Miles saw the sharp points of his teeth as he opened his mouth in surprise.

Miles was not afraid. He was not afraid of this strange aquatic variant of a human, this Sea Imp. Cadence had been the first he’d studied, the first to come to his home. Then, slowly, more had come. Elwin and Null, a young couple that were filled with nothing but hallmark grocery store card love for each other, then Reyna the half human half Sea Imp, then Nanaba who was fearsome to behold but so gentle in nature… then there had been that human, Emmett, who was just as loud as Cadence and encouraged obnoxious behavior. But, he’d become better after yet another Sea Imp had appeared. Vance. Vance was someone to be scared of. Cadence was just someone to be annoyed with.

“I can’t do this anymore!” Miles continued, already trying to wipe away the tears that were still flowing.

“What?”

“This!” Miles shouted, gesturing to the trashed living room.

Cadence’s pupils, already snake-like, grew thinner still as he became distressed.

“I can’t do this anymore, Cadence! I’m trying so hard already, I’m doing the best I can, but you’re all so different and I can’t tell anymore what your species needs or what _you_ need! And, what about what _I_ need!? I need to sleep! I need to eat! I need my furniture and home to survive you being around it unsupervised!”

“Millie… I don’t understand…” Cadence protested. He was being genuine, and Miles knew it, but it wasn’t enough.

“Why are we even together!? What’s the point, when I’m doing all the work!?” Miles pushed past Cadence to retrieve the flowers from the floor, not caring that his footsteps left green prints behind him as he went. “You don’t care about me. I swear, Cadence, you’re only here because it’s less work for you. It’s just a place to have fun all day!”

Cadence squared his shoulders defiantly at the insults. “That’s not true!” he hollered back.

“Which part!?” Miles demanded to know.

“Any of it!”

“Oh, so you _don’t_ destroy my home? Eat all my food? Use up all my time and energy creating more messes!?”

“N-no… I… dammit, Millie!” Cadence sputtered. His tail lashed behind him in frustration, and he could feel his nails growing sharper and nicking his palms as he curled his fingers into fists.

“I know it’s not a Sea Imp thing, now. It’s just you, Cadence. Only _you_ make my life this hard,” Miles reiterated pointedly, his pale blue eyes devoid of any further emotion though the redness remained and his cheeks were still damp. He dropped the ruined flower arrangements in the trash and went into his room, the door slamming behind him. That was it, then. At least for the night.

Cadence looked around the room and made a face at the mess. Why… why was he like this?

 

~*~

 

“Wow, sounds like you really peeved off Pretty Boy.”

Cadence sighed and buried his face in his hands. Emmett was nice enough to let him talk about it, even though he had been about to go out in the water on that weird board thing of his. “I don’t understand why though,” Cadence mumbled. “I was just doin’ what I’ve always done! An’ he knows that! I thought he _liked_ it. Ezzie liked it…”

“Who’s Ezzie?” Emmett asked, shifting on the sand.

“Ezra… my old mate. He’s dead now. Ev’ryone I knew ‘s dead now,” Cadence answered bitterly. “Ezzie liked cleanin’ up after me, and tellin’ me what t’ do. He kept me in check, an’ I gave him somethin’ to control. That’s how it worked. I thought… I thought Millie was the same.”

“Ezzie… Millie… sounds like you really did,” Emmett commented dryly.

“Shaddup…” Cadence grumbled.

“Well, you’ll either have to go back and apologize… or leave and never come back. That chip of yours is bound to go off the moment you try to leave the beach. So, either go far so they can’t catch you… or make nice with the pretty guy who lets you pass the barriers.” Emmett was not going to be silent.

“Ugh… it’s not fair,” Cadence hissed, lifting his arm to scour it for any unusual areas. He didn’t know where, but he knew somewhere on him, in _him_ , was a device that kept track of him. “Elwin and Null aren’t chipped! Nanaba is a freak t’ look at and he ain’t chipped either!”

“Vance is,” Emmett reminded him.

“That’s because Vance is a turd… like me,” Cadence huffed. They’d both wound up with the tracking implants after pulling some stunts that the humans found “threatening” and referred to as “uncivilized” behavior.

“Yeah, but, unlike you, he’s learning.”

The simple comment irritated Cadence terribly. He was tempted to hit Emmett with his tail, if it weren’t for the bulky human knowing weird ways to move that allowed him to beat the crap out of anyone—Vance included. Cadence still couldn’t figure that out. His kind, Sea Imps, were so much stronger and more durable than humans… yet, humans could have fights where the smaller guy won against a massive one. Supposedly, with the right knowledge, they could even win against a superior race like his own. It didn’t make sense.

“Wazzat supposed t’ mean?” Cadence asked darkly, his yellow eyes shifting to glare at Emmett.

“Well, Vance is… open to changing. Sort of. Like, he doesn’t just destroy my stuff because he needs to have fun. If he’s really that bored, he knows he can talk to me and we can roughhouse or go to the beach or do something with that energy. And, he at least _asks_ before getting into my food. The only thing he didn’t ask first for was when he fell asleep on my futon… but I didn’t mind that,” Emmett chuckled.

“Ugh! That’s because he’s young!”

“He’s older than you!”

“No he isn’t!” Cadence shouted, jumping to his feet. “He’s only older in terms of how many years he’s been wet! I was born in a different time—everything was different! It’s not just Ezzie that was like that! Everyone was like that—that’s how it worked for us. One person was the active force, the other was the commanding force! God! I fuckin’ hate it, I hate how it changed! It was easier the old way!” Cadence was stomping around on the sand in front of Emmett, pacing and ruffling his already messy hair further as he yelled.

“Active and commanding?” Emmett questioned, pushing for more info.

“Yes! That’s how relationships worked for us. You’d have the… how do you call it… the brains of the operation? That thing. Then there’d be the “pawn”. But, much more intimate… Ezzie was my everything. I did whatever he asked, whatever he told me. And, whatever he wanted, it was always best for me too!” Cadence dropped back into the sand with a grunt and threw a broken shell towards the ocean. “I… I don’t think before I do anything. I need someone t’ tell me what t’ do… I need someone else t’ think for me. I don’t know any different.”

“Isn’t “stay out of the pantry” and “don’t break my stuff” enough of a command?” Emmett received another annoyed look from Cadence, but Cadence was silent.

“I… he never told me t’ do anything else. He never told me what t’ do at all. Just what not t’ do,” Cadence admitted after a long while. “I need… controlled. I need commanded. I need t’ have something t’ do that contributes. If I’m just sittin’ there, in his home, every day… well, he likes his home clean. He likes t’ clean. So, if I make a mess, then… I’ve done somethin’ that creates somethin’ he likes, right?”

“Wow,” Emmett said slowly. “Your logic is something else. Whoo-boy! You two really need to talk more.”

“He won’t listen… he’s mad at me,” Cadence replied softly. His fingers found a chipped sand dollar half buried in the sand. He dug it out and looked at it for a bit before stuffing it into his pocket.

“He’s upset, and he should be, but it’s his fault too,” Emmett suggested.

“How? He’s been nothin’ but nice t’ me…”

“Well, he was so busy studying current Sea Imps… he forgot that you are different. You have behaviors that are unique to you. You’re not like other Sea Imps,” Emmett answered slyly. “Sure, I forgot too, but… studying Sea Imps isn’t really my deal. I’d expect better from someone who studies them… wouldn’t you?”

Cadence gave a short laugh and nodded. “I guess so….”

 

~*~

 

“Millie…? Millie? M-Miles…?” Cadence called uncertainly as he came through the back door. It was dark in the home. He’d stayed at the beach until long after the sun had set, watching Emmett try to teach Vance how to surf. Vance had wanted to have a scuffle when he saw Cadence was there, but Cadence hadn’t been up to it. He’d had a lot of thinking to do.

The house was clean again, though the carpet remained stained. It had once been flawlessly white…. Cadence looked away in shame—he’d caused all those stains…. The vases were upright again, though they remained devoid of flowers or water. He’d drank the water the last time, so Millie could get new flowers again. Millie liked to make flower arrangements. There were several pillows and a blanket on the couch for Cadence.

Cadence shuffled over to the couch and picked up the blanket. That was it, then? He was back out here. Alone. Shut off from Millie. He was just a guest, or a prisoner, here for Millie to study. Cadence folded the blanket and set it back down. No. He was not done yet—it wasn’t fair! Millie didn’t understand him anymore than he understood Millie!

Cadence carefully opened Millie’s bedroom door and went in, unsurprised to see that the bedside lamp was still on and that Miles had fallen asleep with a book on his pillow again. Seeing Miles’ soft, sleeping face, Cadence felt his anger dissipate. He moved the book to the bedside table and turned off the lamp, then turned to leave.

“Cadence…? What are you doing?” Miles murmured sleepily.

“I… sorry… I was just turnin’ off the light. I’m… I’ll go now,” Cadence stammered.

“Don’t lie,” Miles said flatly. He shifted in bed, sitting up and scooting over to make room for Cadence.

Cadence stared at the empty space and moved away, instead dropping into Miles’ computer chair without bothering to spin it to face Miles and resting his arms on the backside of it.

“Well?” Miles asked expectantly.

Cadence opened his mouth to apologize again, then stopped. It was different now… it wasn’t the same—Miles was not his commander. That wasn’t how mates worked anymore…. “I forgive you,” he said cheekily instead.

“What?”

Cadence couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him. He couldn’t believe he’d said it. He was used to annoying Millie, and denying him and being a pest… but that was for fun, to give Miles more reasons to scold him and boss him around. Or, so he’d thought. He laughed this time, however, because he wasn’t denying Millie for Millie’s sake. He was doing it purely because he wanted to.

“Cadence… it’s almost four in the morning. I’m half asleep. Would you just speak up?”

Cadence felt the laugh quickly dissolve into tears. It was hard… it was harder than he expected. He didn’t want to tell Millie “no” and mean it.

“Why are you crying!? I’m the one with a reason to cry!”

“Shut it, Millie! That’s not even fair!” Cadence retorted as he removed his glasses. “You didn’t even ask me why I was bein’ that way! You just assumed it was t’ make ya miserable, like that was my only goal—t’ be a burden. An’ it hurt!”

“You’re always that way! You can’t be “being” a way that you naturally are,” Miles protested.

“I’m that way for a reason! I’m not like the others!” Cadence snapped. “You just… make all these friggin’ assumptions about what’s normal behavior for my kind and ya don’t even stop t’ remember that I’m different.”

“Different?! You’re hardly different! So what if you can’t change forms or relax your teeth and eyes!? That hardly is a handicap!” Miles interjected.

“I’m not talkin’ about that shit!” Cadence snarled. He hated crying. Crying on land was different than crying in water—you could feel it, for one. It made your eyes burn too… and it always made him feel particularly thirsty afterwards.

“Then what are you talking about!?”

“My age, you fuckin’ dickhead!” Cadence wished Millie would just tell him off already. Just tell him to stop yelling and go to sleep. Millie didn’t, however, and Cadence found himself continuing. “I… things changed. Relationships aren’t the same for my kind anymore… I’m a freakin’ relic, an’ no one even told me it was different now. I… I kept waitin’ for ya t’ tell me what t’ do; go hunt, bring me some rocks, take me somewhere new, make me laugh…. Ya didn’t. I had t’ figure out what you liked, or what I thought ya did….”

Miles was silent, and Cadence faltered as he looked at Miles in the dark. Miles couldn’t see him well in this light, and Cadence couldn’t see him well with his glasses off. It was fair.

“I… was wrong. I was tryin’ to get ya t’ command me. I was tryin’ t’ busy myself and do stuff I thought you’d like. I thought ya liked cleanin’… and I thought ya liked bein’ the smart one. I was wrong…” Cadence repeated, getting out of the chair and leaving the room before Miles could even reply.

The chair spun quietly in a circle, empty now.

 

~*~

Cadence spent the rest of the night in a tide pool, rather than stay a single minute longer in the house with Millie. He didn’t want to sleep on the couch. That was just another thing to remind him that he’d fucked up.

He fell asleep when the sun was starting to rise, content to sleep in the tidepool where there was little to no chance of him floating into a jellyfish field. He couldn’t sleep in the open ocean anymore without having nightmares of the event that caused everything. It caused him to lose Ezra, to lose a hundred years… it had given him the thick scars that wrapped around his thighs. Those scars embarrassed him, though he didn’t know why. He felt like he’d forgotten why they were so… distressing. Still, seeing them always filled him with more anguish than just the loss of his former life.

In the tide pool, he could at least sleep with some peace. Though, he was still troubled by dreams of the past and the present.

He eventually woke up because someone was poking him in the face. It was Vance. Unsurprising. The guy was confined to this small beach almost as much as he was these days. Cadence glared up at him.

“Go away. I don’t wanna play right now,” Cadence ordered. He made a face. There was something in his boot. That never happened when he slept inside….

“Psh. I’m not here to play—even though I could kick your ass,” Vance bragged. He dangled his feet into the tidepool— _Cadence’s_ tide pool—and began toying with the necklace Emmett had given him. It jingled when it moved, and had little segments that twisted and spun round and round. Cadence, watching him, touched his own necklace—a fish skeleton carved from the teeth of his deceased grandparents.

“What do ya want, then?”

“Emmett said you were all down about that pretty human. I just wanted to come rub it in your face that _my_ human is great,” Vance laughed snidely.

Cadence scowled at him. “Fuck you,” he sneered. He climbed out of the tide pool and yanked his boot off, unsurprised when a small fish fell out of it. He kicked it back into the tidepool.

“Eh? Nothing? Really?” Vance watched Cadence in surprise. “Aw geeze… you’re really messed up about this. Ffffiiiiiine,” Vance groaned, moving to follow Cadence. “So, what’s up?”

Cadence didn’t even look at him, instead yanking his boot back on and trudging down the beach with no real goal in mind. “Fuck you,” he said again when Vance caught up.

Vance punched him in the shoulder. “Stop bein’ such a baby and tell me!” he demanded.

“It’s none of yer business! You wouldn’t understand it anyways!” Cadence growled, grabbing the area where Vance had punched him. _Jerk_ …

“Try me!” Vance insisted.

Cadence spun around and shoved Vance as hard as he could, Vance’s pupils constricting as he caught himself. Vance’s lips parted into a lopsided grin, and Cadence barely had time to move when Vance charged him. _Fuck_ … Vance was bigger than him, that was almost enough of a reason for him to win as it were… but, he’d been learning things from his human. Those special things that would make him even more dangerous. Cadence did the only thing he knew how to do—he dodged.

He dodged left, he dodged right. He avoided every swing and kick and grab that he could, his speed his only advantage. He did manage to slap Vance with his tail once, and he was proud of that. Vance lunged at him, and he dove into the sand and tried to scuttle away, his chin hitting the sand hard when Vance grabbed him by the ankle and dragged him backwards.

“Oof!” Cadence felt his teeth pierce his tongue from the impact. Vance abruptly sat on him, putting all his weight onto Cadence’s torso and pinning him down. Cadence spat blood onto the sand and hissed angrily. “Fuck you fuck you fuck you!” he screeched, still trying to claw his way out from under Vance. Maybe he could dig his way out… no. That was just result in him being buried further in the sand. He shuddered. He didn’t want to be buried again.

“God, you’re so immature!” Vance declared, already playing with his necklace again as he reclined on Cadence.

Cadence tried to hit him with his tail again, but Vance grabbed onto one of the silver loops that adorned his fins and threatened to tear it out. Cadence was subdued.

“Anyways, I don’t really give a crap about you and pretty human. Emmett does, though, and I care about Emmett. So hurry up and fix your mistakes.” Vance got off him and left, Cadence rolling onto his backside and wiping his mouth off. Blood got on his sleeve. _Jerk_ … he thought again.

 

~*~

 

“Cadence!”

Cadence was stunned when Miles nearly tackled him, his hands grabbing Cadence’s face and checking him over. Cadence had only just come in, and had still been in the process of shutting the kitchen’s sliding glass door behind him when Miles had startled him.

“M-Millie,” Cadence responded, tensing under Miles’ gaze and touch. Cadence felt his heart sink a little with a realization; this was probably just to ensure that his “scientific discovery” was alright. Nothing more.

“I was… I was worried. You left again, and Emmett said he’d told you to either make up or leave but then you didn’t come back and I thought you’d decided to leave but your chip didn’t ever go off and the cops never came so I figured you were still around but then I thought maybe you’d removed the chip somehow but—”

Cadence pushed Miles’ hands away and removed himself from Miles’ grasp. His clothes were still slightly damp.

“I’m gonna go shower…” he informed Miles. His eyes were burning again. Why did he want to cry so much?

“Cadence, wait!”

Cadence froze, his head turning to glance over his shoulder.

“I… Emmett told me… well, I mean, _you_ also told me but I didn’t understand and then Emmett came over and he explained it more and I get it now and… and…” Miles’s babbling slowed to a halt, his cheeks reddening as he looked at Cadence then away. “Cadence… shower with me?”

Cadence’s eyes widened a little, the heels of his boots thudding heavily against the wooden floor of the kitchen as he turned around and approached Millie. “What?” he asked.

“Shower… with me,” Miles repeated, this time without the question mark.

Cadence sighed. “I just… I just want t’ please you. T’ do whatever makes ya happy…” he mumbled, his hands moving to rest on Miles’ hips and pull him closer.

“I know. I’m sorry. I messed up, but I wish you’d told me,” Millie replied.

“Back at ya,” Cadence scoffed.

“Don’t start with me,” Miles warned him, his lips brushing over Cadence’s lightly after he finished speaking. “Want to make me very happy?”

“Tell me what t’ do,” Cadence answered, Miles smiling at him.

**Author's Note:**

> This will be my last Writing Prompt Wednesday until after November!


End file.
